Application of matrix solid-phase dispersion and high-performance liquid chromatography for determination of sulfonamides in honey

A novel method for simultaneous determination of 8 sulfonamide residues (sulfathiazole, sulfapyridine, sulfadiazine, sulfamerazine, sulfamonome-thoxine, sulfachloropyridazine, sulfamethoxazole, and sulfadimethoxine) in honey samples by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has been developed on the basis of precolumn derivatization with 9-fluorenylmethyl-chloroformate (FMOC-Cl). Sulfonamide residues in honey samples were extracted and purified by matrix solid-phase dispersion with C-18 as the solid support. The residues were derivatized by FMOC-Cl, and the FMOC-sulfonamide derivatives were further purified by solid-phase extraction with silica gel as the solid support prior to HPLC analysis. The average recoveries for most sulfonamide compounds at different spiking levels (from 10 to 250 mu g/kg) were > 70% with relative standard deviations < 16%, and their limits of detection were 4.0 mu g/kg. The established analytical method has high sensitivity and repeatability and can be applicable for determining the sulfonamide residues in various honey matrixes.